Regulators in the US, UK, and Switzerland have levied fines on banks for rigging benchmarks used by fund managers to determine what they pay for foreign currency in the foreign exchange (forex) market. The fines add up to $4.3 billion in total so far – not exactly a heavy hit on the Too Big To Fail banks. Not even much of a disincentive to not do it again.

After lying to regulators, manipulating the market, and putting out fraudulent documents JPMorgan will pay a relatively small fine and move on. Because when the powerful repeatedly break the law the consequences are never very severe. If we stopped these Wall Street banksters from making criminal profits they might stop making criminal profits – then where would our economy be?

Life, liberty, and property. These were in theory the founding principles of the republic. But as President Obama meets today with the the Big Banksters to plot his latest attacks on Social Security and Medicare, it seems property rights still only exist for roughly the same percentage they did in days of America under the British Empire, 1%. Or so one could reasonably deduce from the fraudclosure settlement.

When dealing with regulators from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly started screaming and told regulators he did not believe they should have the documents they were required to have under the law.

In what can only be described as a slap to the face of victims of the housing crisis and an insult to even the vaguest notion of the rule of law, the banks responsible for the mortgage meltdown and subsequent financial crisis and recession have once again escaped justice. After criminal cases were dropped despite massive evidence the civil cases are now settled with regulators and its a slam dunk for the banks. Total victory

Believe it or not, we may have gotten a better retirement yesterday. Julie Williams, the longtime friend to the banks at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (which I call the Office of Bank Advocacy), is retiring after 19 years. Williams, the chief counsel at OCC, led the way on pre-empting state consumer protection laws during the housing bubble, and oversaw the implementation of the sham foreclosure review process.

In general, borrowers get something in the mail that looks like a scam letter. It doesn’t specify what they could receive from this government review of their foreclosure. Even the most savvy borrower – if they can be found, since they probably don’t live in the same house that they did before the foreclosure – would be hard-pressed to read it and respond. That’s especially true because this community has been inundated with scams and grifts, and they are at least attuned to that possibility.